Surviving as the Villainess’s Servant in a Martial Arts Novel Chapter 132

Chapter 132

 

I happily swept the silver on the table toward myself. Even that wasn’t enough, so I pulled out a sack I had prepared in advance and began scooping the silver into it.

The people were looking at me enviously, while Liyeon was also staring at me in surprise. Only the dealer was trembling, his face red enough to burst.

Eventually, the dealer shouted,

“This is cheating! It’s a scam!”

I abruptly stopped what I was doing and asked,

“Cheating? How is this cheating?”

“Clearly, clearly…!”

“What are you trying to say? I followed the rules perfectly. You shook the dice cup and mixed the dice, and I called out the number that would come up. Didn’t I win the money because I guessed the number correctly?”

“When you stopped earlier…!”

“No, that was just me suddenly getting scared and saying it on a whim. I didn’t actually take back my bet, did I? So what exactly is the problem?”

“……”

The dealer couldn’t bring himself to say anything. I chuckled inwardly.

‘Of course there’s no problem.’

The problem was with the dealer.

Wasn’t he the one who had tried to cheat by subtly moving the dice cup and knocking the dice to change the number?

That had really been dangerous. I knew cheating was common in gambling houses, but I hadn’t expected him to pull something like that. Judging by his hand movements, it clearly wasn’t something he had only done once or twice. I had nearly fallen for it.

But there was no way I would let myself be fooled so easily.

I hurriedly shouted to draw everyone’s attention, then lightly struck the underside of the table to change the number on the die.

Although I hadn’t done something like that often enough to make the exact number I wanted come up, hadn’t I instead turned it into a game where we were genuinely leaving the result to luck?

‘Though I won.’

Without a care, I continued sweeping up the money while humming.

“Whew, that was close. If I had taken my bet back then, I wouldn’t have gotten this windfall, would I? Thank you so much for stopping me!”

“……”

“Huh? But there seems to be a little less silver than there should be for 3,200 nyang. Surely you aren’t going to be so petty as to skim off the money I won fair and square? Bring me my money! Bring me the rest of my money!”

“You damn country bumpkin, seriously…!”

Just as the dealer was finally about to slam his hand down on the table–

“Wait.”

Someone grabbed the dealer by the shoulder. He was a middle-aged man in his fifties. Judging by his piercing eyes, thick eyebrows, and expensive-looking robe, he didn’t seem like an ordinary person. And there was only one person here who would dress like that.

‘The gambling house owner.’

So you finally came out.

The man met my gaze, gave me a genial smile, and spoke.

“There’s no way our Yuhui Pavilion would refuse to pay out money someone won. Congratulations. The God of Gambling must be watching over you today, wouldn’t you say?”

I smiled back and replied,

“Thank you. I suppose this place suits me well. So when will I get my money?”

“Come this way. There’s no need for you to carry such heavy silver coins around, is there? I’ll issue you a note for the remaining amount under the name of our pavilion. You’ll be able to collect it later at a bank.”

“If you’re willing to do that, then I’d be happy to.”

At the man’s gesture, I picked up my sack of money and headed toward him.

Only then did the dealer come to his senses. He scratched his head and returned to his place. He picked up the dice cup again and resumed the game as though nothing had happened.

Soon, the gambling house returned to its usual scene.

When I approached, the man called over a guard standing behind him and had him bring the note. As the guard left, Liyeon came up behind me. We stood beside the man and waited for the guard to return.

The man suddenly asked,

“By the way, where are you from? I don’t recognize your face from around here.”

I answered casually,

“I’m just a wandering rogue. I was traveling from place to place when I started getting an itch in my hands, you see. I heard about this place and came here to have some fun.”

“I see. Is the fellow behind you your companion?”

“Behind me? Ah, my business partner. I’ve known this fellow for quite some time, but he hardly speaks and lives such a boring life. So I brought him along this time to teach him the joys of gambling.”

“Did your friend enjoy himself? I don’t think I saw him gambling.”

“That’s what I mean! I went to all the trouble of bringing him here, and he couldn’t even join in. He just stood there staring. I suppose it’s simply not his cup of tea…”

The man and I chatted amicably, as though we were old friends.

Just then, the guard who had left returned. The man checked the note the guard handed him before passing it to me.

It was a note worth no less than 1,600 nyang.

I merely stared blankly at the note.

‘Unexpected.’

To be honest, when he had said he would give me a note and stalled for time, I had wondered if he was planning to refuse payment and stab me in the back. But just as the man had said, he seemed perfectly willing to pay out my winnings.

Well, that certainly wasn’t a bad thing for me.

When I continued smiling without taking the note, the man tilted his head in confusion.

“What are you doing? Why aren’t you taking it?”

“Brother, to be honest, I don’t need this money.”

“What?”

The man frowned.

“What use is money in this world? Money is something you can have one moment and lose the next, or have nothing one moment and gain the next, isn’t it? Even if I were to obtain this much money, couldn’t it all disappear in an instant one day?”

“What are you trying to say?”

“To be honest, I don’t really want this money. More precisely, I want something more valuable than this money.”

“……”

I immediately said,

“How about ‘pleasure more precious than money’?”

The man’s face instantly turned cold.

Seeing his reaction, I knew instinctively.

‘Looks like I said it correctly.’

Ayoung had told us earlier. The Pleasure Pavilion had a coded term they used among themselves when referring to Yeollak-hwan, and even when meeting the gambling house owner, we had to use that code word before he would produce the goods.

When I first heard that, I was skeptical. Was the code word Ayoung had given us really correct? What if it was wrong and we ended up arousing their suspicions?

But it seemed the code word was indeed correct.

Because the man said,

“…So you’ve come looking for that.”

“So that was your purpose from the beginning, then? Not winning money through gambling.”

“That too. Win some money and get that as well.”

The man burst out laughing.

“Haha, you’re quite the greedy fellow. Fine, but we weren’t contacted in advance. Where are you from?”

“I’m from the Lim family of Fujian Province. Sorry for not contacting you beforehand. We only received an introduction ourselves, so we weren’t entirely sure about it either.”

“Whose introduction did you receive?”

“I came through an introduction from the Zhang Trading Company.”

“Zhang Trading Company… Zhang…”

The man mulled over my words for a moment before nodding.

“Come to think of it, someone from the Zhang Trading Company came looking for the goods a few days ago. I suppose they introduced you to someone else. Though I told them that someone from our own organization had to accompany them…”

The man clicked his tongue. I didn’t answer anything I didn’t understand and simply watched him.

‘Did I make it through safely?’

Up to this point, I had managed to answer everything using the information Ayoung had taught us. But if the conversation went on much longer, he would quickly notice the awkward parts in my story.

It would be troublesome if he asked me anything more…

As Liyeon and I exchanged subtle glances, the man belatedly smiled and said,

“Well, there’s nothing wrong with gaining a new business partner.”

“……!”

“How much do you need? Goods worth 1,600 nyang?”

The man asked while showing me the note in his hand. I waved my hand.

“We don’t need that much. Our elder merely wants to try one or two pills first, just as a test. I hear the medicine from your organization gets better by the day. We won’t know until we try it ourselves, will we?”

“Of course. Then what about this money?”

“That money wasn’t mine to begin with, and I’ll simply give it to you for the sake of making our first transaction a successful one.”

“Haha, you’re quite generous. Very well. Wait here a moment.”

The man smiled pleasantly, tucked the note into his robes, and turned around. Then he began walking toward the entrance of the gambling house.

Watching him, I quietly exhaled.

‘Did it work?’

Things had gone much more smoothly than I expected.

Honestly, I had prepared several answers because I thought he would interrogate me more thoroughly, but surprisingly, the man quickly dropped his suspicions. It seemed the reputation of the Zhang Trading Company Ayung had found out about was quite useful.

Although there would be trouble later if they sent someone to the Zhang Trading Company to verify things, by then we would already have the medicine and be long gone.

I looked toward Liyeon and our eyes met. I gestured that we should run away after receiving the medicine from him. Whether he understood or not, he blinked.

Just as I gave a small laugh and turned my head–

“……?”

I stopped.

I had thought the man had already left the gambling house, but he had somehow stopped right in the center.

More precisely, he was looking at me…

‘…Huh?’

A chill suddenly ran down my back.

Just as I sensed that something had gone wrong–

“Everyone!”

The man shouted loudly. At his cry, the people who had been thoroughly enjoying their gambling suddenly stopped.

I also froze. The man threw his head back and laughed.

“Our long-awaited guests have arrived! Let’s give them a warm welcome!”

Then came words I could hardly believe.

“From the Sacred Flame Sect!”